The Arizona sentinel., 1887-03-19
INVENTIVE GENIUS.
Why the Plodding Inventor Is Entitled to
 Public Encouragement.

Why the Plodding Inventor Is Entitled to
 Public EncOuragement-
 We regret that there is a disposition sometimes to speak sneeringly of the various patent devices that are brought to the attention of the public, and it is possible that there are also sneers for the inventors of these devices. While it IS true that there are some cranks among inventors. and while it is true that many of the patent devices are crude and impracticable, yet each one represents an original idea, which, combined with the original ideas rep resented in other devices, has made our people the foremost on the earth. There have probably been some worth less inventions patented at Washing ton, and it is probable that ninety-nine out of every hundred have yielded no returns to their owners; but it is a truth, nevertheless, that there are very few of the whole of the vast number which have not served a noble purpose, the ideas contained in each having been at some time and in some form utilized in producing the perfected de- vice, that work s with greater precision and the apparent intelligence of the human will. It is not one inventor to whose genius is due the perfect ma chine of to-day, but it may be that the ideas of a thousand have been com bined to produce that result, many of whom are dead, nearly all of whom are forgotten and their names unknown, save as they are written upon the musty records of the patent office.
 Unaided by the genius of the hum- ble and sometimes cranky inventors, the world with it's billions of capital and its millions of strong and willing arms would have made but poor progress in bringing railroading up to its present state of perfection. The tremendous possibilities of the future are bounded only by the genius and the labor of in- ventOrs. There will be no lack of labor and capital, but all will depend upon the men who wear their lives out in making the practical application of an idea to which their genius has given birth. A few more efforts, aud the thousand or so of geaiusus and cranks mscalled ''the patent car coupler fiends." but who are really angels in disguise, will give us car coupler that annually saves many thousands of valuable human lives. A little more labor. and the in- vent9Ss will give us a brake that will greatly lessen the num- Der of collisions. A few more inn provements, and we shall have such tunneling and grading machinery that, instead of going over and around mountains and hills, we shall go straight through and under them, giv- us solid tracks without grades and curves; and in a word, instead of our trains maxi ng fifty miles an hour, we shall with greater safety make one hundred miles an hour, at just such time as it shall suit the convenience of our inventors to have us do so.
 Then by all means let us give every encouragementa and aid possible to in- ventive genius. Instead of contract ing, let us enlarge in every manner possible the scope and usefulness of | the Patent Office. Instead of sneering | at the ''crank" inventors of patent | devices, let us honor them as the great est benefactors of their race .-RdilaOay | cey.7,ice G0zetfs